(KANSAS CITY, Mo.), March 19, 2012 –
Entrepreneurship is alive and well in the wake of the Great Recession,
although the rate of new business creation dipped during 2011 and
startup founders remained more likely to fly solo than employ others.
That's the big take away from the "Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial
Activity," a leading indicator of new business creation in the United
States published annually and released today by the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation.

The Index shows that 0.32 percent of American adults created a
business per month in 2011 – a 5.9 percent drop from 2010, but still
among the highest levels of entrepreneurship over the past 16 years. The
quarterly employer firm rate also remained essentially flat from 2010
to 2011 at 0.11 percent.

"The Great Recession has pushed many individuals into business
ownership due to high unemployment rates," said Robert Litan, vice
president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. "However,
economic uncertainty likely has made them more cautious, and they prefer
to start sole proprietorships rather than more costly employer firms.
This 'jobless entrepreneurship' trend negatively effects job creation
and the larger economic recovery."

Capturing new founders in their first month of significant business
activity, the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activityprovides the
earliest documentation of new business establishment across the country.
The percentage of the adult, non-business-owner population that starts a
business each month is measured using data from the monthly Current
Population Survey (CPS), conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to this overall rate of
entrepreneurial activity, the Kauffman Index presents separate estimates
for specific demographic groups, states and select metropolitan
statistical areas (MSAs). It provides the only national measure of
business creation by specific demographic groups. The 2011 data allow
for an update to annual reports dating back to 1996. Interactive data
spanning all 16 years is available at www.kauffman.org/kiea.